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by torqueehmada 384 days ago
Incoming anecdata:

I'm in my 50's and consult consumer reports whenever I need to buy a white-box appliance. I've moved a few times so I find myself having to do this more than most people.

The qualm I have with CR goes back to the 1980's when I was a bike mechanic for many years. I had a broad knowledge of all the current brands, and knew which bikes were cheap junk. CR had incorrectly ranked the quality of the bicycles largely due to how they "felt" while riding them. One bike, which was actually good quality, got dinged because it wasn't adjusted properly ("Shifter did not engage lowest gears." or something like that). That one article tainted my opinion of them for anything that requires "tuning" by an expert.

YMMV. Mine has for 40 years. :)
3 comments
righthand 384 days ago
Thank you that is very informative in the context as I'm rather new to Consumer Reports. There definitely articles strange rankings. For example I was looking for an reverse osmosis filter and this is something consumer reports just doesn't really have ranked (at least no searchable from their website). They have 1-2 models and they're both not brands that match "reddit reverse osmosis filter" when I do a web search.

I do enjoy their studies on things like: the percentage of plastic particles in General Mills products.

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leakycap 383 days ago
I was a big believer in Consumer Reports until I started following their advice. Beginning in 2000s, CR has been repeatedly wrong about which brand of TV is reliable, which dishwasher, which car. I spent a decade following their advice and having nothing but trouble.

Maybe CR gives something a good review and demand goes up and quality suffers a as a result; but they seem useless and as good as a shot in the dark.

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Dylan16807 383 days ago
> One bike, which was actually good quality, got dinged because it wasn't adjusted properly

What's your estimate for the percentage of owners that are going to get it adjusted properly?

Most of the things I buy are not going to get tuned, and while a tuned score would be good to see an untuned score is important, likely more important.

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